Chapter 2: Exploring R

Objectives of this Chapter

2.1 Starting the First R Session

2.2 R Features

2.3 Vectors in R

2.4 Making Code Clear and Legible

Before Starting

Some few notes before we proceed to the next discussion

• R is an object-oriented language. It is a type of a computer programming that need to define the data type and structure and also the type of operations (functions) that can be applied to the data structure.
• R is case sensitive.
• The symbol > is the R prompt.
• The symbol + indicates incomplete command.
• Command are grouped together by using {} or ().
• The symbol # is for writing comments or remarks. R does not support multi-line comments or comment blocks.

Starting the First R Session

Start a new R session, type the following in the console and press Enter

x <- 5

print (x)

## [1] 5

x

## [1] 5

msg <- "hello"
msg

## [1] "hello"

x1 <- 1:5

x1

## [1] 1 2 3 4 5

c(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

## [1] 1 2 3 4 5

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5

## [1] 15

We try applying sum () function and see what the outputs;

sum (x1)

sum (1:5)

sum (c(1, 2, 3, 4, 5))

All these commands will give us the same output;

## [1] 15